The Government plans to make access to early partial retirement more difficult

The possibility of combining work and pension is usually something highly appreciated by unions and well accepted by companies, but on the other hand it usually encounters the reluctance of an Administration that fears the costs it will entail.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
08 April 2024 Monday 10:28
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The Government plans to make access to early partial retirement more difficult

The possibility of combining work and pension is usually something highly appreciated by unions and well accepted by companies, but on the other hand it usually encounters the reluctance of an Administration that fears the costs it will entail. This prior positioning allows us to better understand that the expected approach of the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security on how to reform early partial retirement, once it has arrived, has provoked the rejection of the unions. The ministry raised it at the social dialogue table this Monday, and the interpretation of UGT and CC.OO. is that it represents a cut in rights.

There was no formal proposal, but there was a document with the main lines of the reform to which La Vanguardia has had access, and in which access to early partial retirement is especially difficult in the manufacturing sector with a relief contract. In this case, the maximum to advance retirement with respect to the legal age is reduced to three years, when it is currently four, the reduction in working hours is limited to a maximum of 50% in case of an anticipation of 36 months, in addition to applying amount-reducing coefficients and that the pension will not be recalculated once the worker has access to full retirement.

That is, a series of factors that make it more difficult and less attractive to take this early partial retirement. Other conditions are added, such as that the company that applies it has 85% indefinite contracts.

“The proposal is far from our expectations, and we consider that it cuts rights, not only for the manufacturing industry, where it exists with a guaranteed replacement contract, but also in other sectors,” said Cristina Estévez, Secretary of Institutional Policy of UGT, who He added that “it is a loss of opportunity for the rejuvenation of the workforce and for a flexible and slow exit from the labor market.” Also Carlos Bravo, Secretary of Public Policies of CC.OO., said that “the general approach is far from being in the terms of a possible agreement,” adding that “it has some interesting elements and others that directly diminish access rights.” to that regulation and generate penal elements that we do not share.”

Regarding early partial retirement for sectors other than manufacturing, the proposal maintains the two-year maximum advance on the legal retirement age and establishes some changes regarding the access conditions.

For the Minister of Inclusion and Social Security, Elma Saiz, it is about “guaranteeing a regime of effective compatibility of work and pension that preserves the quality of employment of relievers and balances the cost that this type of pension has for the system” , as stated in his speech at the Toledo Pact commission.